1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of electronic input devices for computing appliances and pertains particularly to methods and apparatus for inputting information through the use of a touch screen.
2. Discussion of the State of the Art
In the field of electronic input devices for computing appliances, touch screens have evolved to become a primary input device for some computing and communications appliances. A touch screen uses capacitive or resistive methods to enable a user to touch a graphic or link displayed on the screen to interact with that graphic or link according to one or more interaction rules.
Touch screens are becoming a common primary input device for third and fourth generation cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), music players, such as iPods, and in some cases Laptop computers. In applications where the touch screen is the primary input device, the touch capability of the device is always on. In applications where the touch screen is not the primary input device such as with devices having a keyboard and mouse, for example, the touch technology may be toggled on or off.
While touch screen technology has been beneficial in many applications, more innovation is required in order to extend touch screen capabilities to those users that have visual impairments or disabilities. Persons that are blind or severely visually impaired require special input devices to enable them to interact with a variety of electronic communications and computing appliances such as those described above. A touch screen displays graphics and text entries as interactive links that may be touched or tapped to invoke those links. A problem in the current art is that current means for interacting with touch screens have no provisions for visually impaired individuals other than magnification schemes for those who are not totally blind. Those without sufficient vision capability must use some other structured form of data input like speech to text, Braille keyboard, etc.
Therefore, what is clearly needed is a system and methods for enabling visually impaired persons to interact with touch screens as viable input devices associated with myriad electronics communications and computing appliances.